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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Good morning. Saudi Arabia is requiring leading Chinese technology companies to invest in the Gulf kingdom in return for huge deals, as it leverages its petrodollar wealth to boost its domestic tech industry.
Alibaba and SenseTime are among the top Chinese groups to have secured deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars with Saudi Arabia over the past three years, in exchange for setting up joint ventures in the country.
According to industry insiders, Saudi investors are applying increasingly stringent requirements to fund deals. In some cases, Chinese companies have to share technical expertise with their new Saudi partners — a strategy that echoes the tactics of local Chinese governments towards foreign companies decades ago.
“They want your company and engineers to train their own talent,” said one Chinese consultant advising local tech companies on how to raise money from the kingdom. “It comes with strings attached.”
The FT’s Eleanor Olcott reports on the motivations behind the Saudi-Chinese tech relationship.
Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:
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Monetary policy: The People’s Bank of China announces its loan prime rate decision, while Australia’s central bank releases monthly monetary policy minutes.
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Potential merger: US lender Capital One is nearing a deal to buy rival Discover Financial, in a tie-up that would unite two of America’s largest credit card companies.
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Companies: Barclays, BHP, Plus500 and Singapore Airlines are among those reporting results.
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US-India relations: The countries hold their inaugural Indus X conference, focused on expanding defence industrial co-operation, in New Delhi.
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Thailand: The Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development begins in Bangkok.
Five more top stories
1. China’s coastguard boarded a Taiwanese tourist vessel near the Taipei-controlled island of Kinmen yesterday. The rare inspection escalates tensions sparked by the drowning last week of two Chinese citizens whose speedboat capsized while a Taiwanese coastguard vessel was chasing them out of an area close to Taiwan military installations.
2. Exclusive: The US and its allies will take action if China tries to dump goods on international markets to ease its industrial overcapacity problem, senior Treasury officials told the FT. They said a US delegation had made clear its concerns in a recent visit to China, including in conversations with He Lifeng, the vice-premier responsible for China’s economy.
3. Yemen’s Houthis have mounted one of their most damaging attacks yet on a commercial vessel after the Iran-backed group struck a bulk carrier and forced the crew to abandon ship. The attack on the Rubymar was one of three on foreign vessels over 24 hours. All the strikes came hours after the US military said it had identified a submarine drone amid the Houthis’ military arsenal for the first time. Read the full story.
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More Middle East news: The International Court of Justice has begun hearings into the legality of Israel’s 56-year occupation of the Palestinian territories, including whether the expansion of Jewish settlements violates the Geneva Conventions.
4. Russian officials have refused to tell Alexei Navalny’s family the probable cause of his death or whereabouts of his body, which the late opposition activist’s team claims is a Kremlin-orchestrated cover-up. Russian investigators yesterday told them the probe into Navalny’s death had been extended for an indefinite period of time, while staff at the morgue would not say if they had his body. Here’s the latest on Navalny’s death.
5. A British-Chinese woman accused of laundering bitcoin derived from a huge investment fraud in China has denied that she knew the cryptocurrency was the proceeds of crime, a court in London heard yesterday. Jian Wen has been charged with three counts of money laundering on behalf of her former employer, Yadi Zhang, a fugitive from the authorities in Beijing who allege she stole approximately £5bn in China between 2014 and 2017.
The Big Read
To his advocates, Gary Gensler has been a fearless protector of investors and the markets since he became chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2021. Gensler has undertaken a sweeping reassessment of rules that have underpinned US markets for decades, just as the industry is adapting to new technologies, asset classes and market participants. But his reforms and tough stance on enforcement, with targets ranging from top investment banks to upstart crypto exchanges, have antagonised some on Wall Street.
We’re also reading . . .
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Putin’s global fan club: Admirers of the Russian leader may soon lead the world’s three largest democracies — India, the US and Indonesia. Their strange loyalties to Putin go beyond realpolitik, writes Gideon Rachman.
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RedBird’s Gerry Cardinale: The investor behind high-profile media and sport takeovers says he has “no tolerance for political behaviour”, in an interview with the FT.
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Biden 2.0?: Europe has been pondering a response to Trump 2.0, writes Rana Foroohar, but it needs a plan for a Democratic election victory as well.
The FT has launched its new US Election Countdown newsletter. Join the FT’s Washington reporter Steff Chávez for your essential guide to the twists and turns of the most significant election for decades. Sign up here.
Chart of the day
China reported its smallest annual foreign direct investment since the 1990s last year, as the world’s second-largest economy struggled to recover from the pandemic and investors sought higher yields elsewhere.
Take a break from the news
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer proved the biggest winner at the 2024 Bafta Film Awards in London, while Barbie, the other half of “Barbenheimer”, received no prizes despite five nominations. Danny Leigh sums up a night long on glitz but otherwise short on surprises.
Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Gordon Smith
